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Note: doubleclick enlarges almost all fotos for the past year or so.
Cutter head, the helical jaws with scores of teeth that need intensive maintenance,
smoking heat and
light therapy to effect the endless gnawing away of
sixth boro bottom limits. One team attends to the teeth while another
prepares the rig for chewing
elsewhere in
the Channel. I wonder when any of the Museums in other five boros will mount an exhibit of this effort, as the Boston
Museum of Science did 0f their herculean effort almost two decades ago. Meanwhile, what has happened to the cutter head, you say?
Or the mighty Brazos and crew?
Why . . . busy, of course.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Vessels besides Florida include Sea Bear, Layla Renee, and Pearl River.
Whatzdis!?
A weapon from Captain Nemo’s Nautilus emerging from the depths to exact revenge?
Of course, if you read tugster regularly, you know about my fascination with the dredge machine called a cutter suction head. Tug supporting the dental barge here is Sea Bear. Note the condition of the teeth (over 50?) on the head and the green spares on deck behind the dental crew, who like the folks that work on human teeth, use
appropriate tools to assess the damage.
Reinforcements move in. This cutter head has been chewing on some hard and fibrous–if tasty?– sixth boro bottom.
The replacement process
begins in earnest.
When needed, the crew puts the heat
where needed and then
applies blunt persuasion, reminding me of the dentist who once exerted himself so much to yank a molar from my head that he broke
a sweat. An hour later, cutter head has a new set of beautiful green teeth, and Dr. Sea Bear
moves to the next patient.
Interesting work, guys.
All fotos by will Van Dorp, who’s happy to see so much dredging happening along the Kills.
No matter that Padre Island might be the sixth boro’s version of Sisyphus . . . or an enormous vacuum cleaner/wet vac, no matter . . . I’m always happy to see the trailing suction hopper dredge (TSHD), especially up close. The northeast corner of Staten Island looks remarkable uninhabited, an illusion to be sure.
I guess this is the front dischange head. See a video of this attachments to this head used for “rainbowing” here. (Correction/crossout made here thanks to SeaBart.)
Here Padre Island heads out toward the Verrazano Narrows. I’ve wondered sometimes whether it uses its sonic eyes to make the “bottom of the harbor” equivalent of crop circles in the fluff.
Not the best foto, but the black structure is a drag head, attached to
the suction pipe, like arm and hand. See a trove of dredge images here.
Pipes and heads are stowed here, up and out of the way, as Padre Island travels to the area needing
to be carved or aspirated. I get dizzy thinking of all the potential jokes here, like ”This job/boat sucks.”
As she passed by this week, I was surprised how much noise came from her 3000 hp propulsion. And how speedy she was. Was there ever sail-powered dredging? What artifacts get sucked up and dumped during the dredging process? I know progress calls, but what stuff otherwise treasured gets missed? What fauna gets sucked up? Was Oliver Evans‘ steamer Oruktor Amphibolos, ”Amphibious Digger,” really the beginning of dredging?
All fotos Will Van Dorp.
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